The invention relates to an aerial cableway comprising, a continuously moving endless cable connecting two stations, carriages and loads having hanger arms for securing the loads to said carriages, a grip for each of said carriages, for coupling the carriage to the cable, a stationary cable supporting structure having cable supporting sheaves rotatably mounted to the structure and a grip guiding device secured to the stationary structure and being formed to stabilize and to position the grip for passage of the grip and hanger arm over the cable supporting sheaves and for passengers embarking and disembarking.
The invention is described hereafter as being applied to a detachable chairlift having a grip guiding device at the station entrance but it is clear that it can be applied to other types of cable transport installations, such as gondola lifts or fixed grip chairlifts, as well as to grip guiding devices provided on cable support towers.
The chair is connected with the grip carriage by means of a hanger arm and the hanger arm and carriage should freely passe over the cable support structure at all possible angles of swing of the chair, for instance due to the action of the wind or to an irregular loading of the chair. It has already been proposed to limit the swing of the chair, when the chair comes nearby a stationary cable support structure, by means of a lead-in guide secured to this support structure so as to guide and to place the grip carriage in a balanced position to facilitate the passage on the support structure as well as the embarking and disembarking of the passengers. The enlarged entrance portion of the lead-in guide receives a wheel provided on the grip carriage and this entrance portion must be large enough to receive this wheel at all possible angles of swing and positions of the chair and positions of the cable.
When the chair travel speed and/or the chair swing angles are high, the guiding forces generated by the conventional lead-in guide increase excessively and provoke dangerous oscillations and bumps. These forces may be reduced by increasing the length of the lead-in guide, so as to reduce the slope of the guide rails, constituting the lead-in guide, but such an arrangement complicates the overall layout of the station or that of the support towers.